Biomanufacturing: a US-China National Science Foundation-sponsored workshop

A recent US-China National Science Foundation-sponsored workshop on biomanufacturing reviewed the state-of-the-art of an array of new technologies for producing scaffolds for tissue engineering, providing precision multi-scale control of material, architecture, and cells. One broad category of such techniques has been termed solid freeform fabrication. The techniques in this category include: stereolithography, selected laser sintering, single- and multiple-nozzle deposition and fused deposition modeling, and three-dimensional printing. The precise and repetitive placement of material and cells in a three-dimensional construct at the micrometer length scale demands computer control. These novel computer-controlled scaffold production techniques, when coupled with computer-based imaging and structural modeling methods for the production of the templates for the scaffolds, define an emerging field of computer-aided tissue engineering. In formulating the questions that remain to be answered and discussing the knowledge required to further advance the field, the Workshop provided a basis for recommendations for future work.